Messianic Jewish movement in Ukraine.

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Abstract

In the beginning of the 1990s, Ukraine, like many other post-Soviet states, was swept by the tsunami of global evangelism and religious euphoria. Because of a number of cultural and historical factors, Ukraine was transformed overnight, as it were, into a remarkably fertile land for a great variety of religious movements both homegrown and imported. While Orthodoxy in Ukraine draws the most attention in academia and media, evangelical Christian churches are often overlooked and remain woefully understudied. One branch of Christian evangelicals that has completely escaped scholarly scrutiny is the community of Messianic Jews, a community that has gained a significant presence in the Ukrainian religious landscape despite some significant challenges. The present paper is an attempt to comprehensively study and describe the Messianic Jewish movement for what it is and by doing so to contribute to the study of religion in Ukraine as a whole.